Mani Pedi

I decided to take the girls for back to school mani pedis. They were so excited when the man showed the huge rack of colors and told them to choose. They thought they were royalty.

Rachel watches as Hannah has her toes done.

Rachel's turn to have her toes done.

The girls.

Hannah having her fingernails painted.

The finished toes. They were so excited when they were told they could have flowers on their nails.

The finished fingers.

The man child was not as excited as his sisters. Daddy wasn't home yet so Aaron had to go along. He did, however, sit and wait patiently.

Our Last Week Together or The Last Week of School

Today was the last day of school for Rachel and Aaron. I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear as I dropped them off this morning. There was just extra excitement in the air and I'm always a little emotional on the first and last days of school.

Winding up this year marked a special milestone. This was my last week having Hannah at home as a preschooler. Our final moments with just the two of us. Well, not forever, but on a regular basis. I decided we would make the most of it.

Tuesday I gave her the option of going to the zoo, the aquarium or the museum. She chose the museum. We had been there before as a family, but it was different with just the two of us.

This display teaches how a tornado is formed. The mini tornado can been seen in the background. My kids think it is hilarious to pretend to run away while we snap pictures.

Making giant bubbles is lots of fun!

Hannah is pretending that the T-Rex is chasing her. I didn't get a very good picture. Probably because I was laughing so hard at her pretending to run away.

She was really checking out the fossils in this display. The look on her face would be what we call "the PK stare."

Wednesday was her last official day of preschool and the parents were invited to join the class for a banana split party.

Hannah is looking at books with her friends while the adults got the party set up.

A perfect banana split complete with a cherry on top.

All the kids got a chance to sign Dante's cast. He fell and broke his arm at his brother's birthday party. He was so sweet. He watched very carefully as each child wrote his or her name.

As we were walking to the car, I asked her how she felt about her last day of preschool. She said she was happy and sad at the same time. I explained what the phrase "bitter sweet" means and told her it was a happy and sad day. In July I am going to email all the parents from her class and see if they want to do a play date at a local park.

Thursday Hannah and I went strawberry picking. We filled four whole buckets and probably could have kept on going. Last year we bought strawberries from a local farmer, but it was much more fun picking our own.

Last night I made the first batch of jam. This year I bought some smaller 4 ounce jars to use as gifts. One bucket of strawberries was enough to fill 12 - 4 ounce jars and one 8 ounce jar. I'm going to use 2 buckets to make jam and we are eating the fourth bucket. Now that we have done it twice, it can be considered a tradition.

Weather permitting, I am going to take all three kids picking again on Wednesday. I think Rachel and Aaron will really enjoy it. Plus, we want to freeze some in small containers to throw in smoothies, oatmeal, etc.

The kids got to take a jar to each of their teachers and some of the support staff.

Their teachers also got a gift card to Starbucks in case you were thinking I got off too easy.

Last year my friend Kari and I surprised the kids and took them out for ice cream after school. I decided that was a great tradition so we all went out for ice cream after school today and then added going to see a movie. I hope that part becomes a tradition, too.

Scary Spiritual Pumpkins

Since Rachel has been really little, we have usually painted our pumpkins instead of carving them. It is easier and believe it or not less messy.

Last year the kids decided they wanted to carve instead of paint.

This picture of Aaron is from last year (makes me miss our old house just a little) and the expression on his face pretty much sums up how all three of the kids felt about actually getting the "guts" out of the pumpkin. I was sure they would all want to go back to painting this year.

However, Rachel is the only one who decided to paint.

Yesterday I took the three kiddos to WalMart and let them each pick a pumpkin. Rachel found hers right away. Aaron looked at a couple and Hannah made me dig through the boxes to find what she had imagined to be the perfect pumpkin.

The pumpkins before the kids apply their creative abilities. Isn't the tablecloth fun? I found it on clearance last year. It is vinyl and easy to clean.

I think this is a sweet picture.

They cleaned their pumpkins.

They used dry erase markers to draw the faces they wanted to be carved in their pumpkins.

Their expressions clearly show that they aren't thrilled about scooping out the insides of the pumpkin. Aaron is actually helping Hannah clean out her pumpkin.

Hannah's heart seed.

Rachel painting hers.

P.K. helped Aaron carve his.

The finished products.

We obviously have Halloween traditions that we follow in our home each year. Our whole family dresses up. I'm always a pumpkin, P.K. is always a wizard (he puts his robe from his Harvard graduation to good use once a year) and the kids choose whatever they want to be. I steer them away from anything scary or gory and we just have fun as a family. (P.K. won't be here this year, but that is a different post.) That said, this is where the title of this post comes in. I carved Hannah's pumpkin and then P.K. carved Aaron's. While Hannah was waiting for them to finish she was making her pumpkin say things. Her pumpkin starts saying, "I'm a scary spiritual pumpkin. I'm a scary spiritual pumpkin." Go figure.

We Be Jammin'

Well, not that kind of jammin', but we did make some delicious homemade strawberry jam. A friend and I bought some fresh strawberries from a local fruit stand this past week. We talked about how it would be nice to make jam. She had done it before. So I went back the next day and bought more strawberries and last night the kids and I made jam. I have some memories of watching my grandmother make jam and my mom and grandmother canning vegetables, but I still needed to do some research. Thank goodness for the internet. Once I had all of the equipment and ingredients together the process was much easier than I had anticipated. That isn't to say it wasn't a long process. The only thing I would do differently is finding a place to pick our own strawberries. We made two batches last night and we have enough strawberries to make one more batch today. We will be adding this to the list of family traditions. Didn't I feel like June Cleaver, Martha Stewart or Caroline Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie) watching my kids have toast with homemade (can't say that enough) strawberry jam for breakfast this morning. Another great summer memory.


Mommy hulling the strawberries.


Hailey measuring the sugar.


Hannah mashing the strawberries. I read that using a blender is much easier, but I knew the kids would really enjoy this step.

Rachel mashing the berries.

Aaron stirring the berries. We did a lot of stirring.

The berries boiling. There was a lot of boiling.

The finished product after putting it in jars and going through the proper sealing process. A couple have a bit of foam on the top. That won't hurt anything, but I will make sure to skim that all off the next time.

The kids are excited to make some deliveries to the neighbors this afternoon.